This is not a post about The Top Ten anything for 2009 OR 2010.

This is not a post about Your Most Important xx (pick your number) Resolutions for 2010.

This is not a post about Thin Thighs in Thirty Days.

This is not a post about How to Make 2010 Your Best Year Ever!

This is a post about you. And your family.  And feeling good in some way, shape or form.

As I gaze out over this semi-great nation of ours, I smell the odor of burned pretty much everything. We came into January all plumped up, ready to go. We were going to kick some major ass out there and…it’s been one long year of politicus interruptus.

Lotta heartburn out there. Lotta burned out people. Lot of people who are stuck in ‘crispy critters’ territory. Whole lotta disappointment goin’ on.

So, Aunt Toby is tying on the apron, getting out the mixing bowl and is here to tell you to – suck it up, people. The Repubs have had 30 years to send this magic bus over the guard rails and it was going to take a whole lot more than one election to get it back on the road, broken axle and all.

OK? You with me, here (and if you aren’t and still want to have an “agita” party, there are plenty of places out there that will have you)?

So. Let’s get back to basics. Pull up the Pampers. Fasten the garters. Tie up the bathrobe. Put on the fuzzy slippers. Pour a cup of tea (or coffee – your choice). And put the outside aside for a couple of minutes. There are some amazing people here at the Lake who do incredible amounts of heavy lifting. And for that, they deserve a huge hurrah and support in any way we can provide it.

But what we all need as well, is a little bit of a hurrah and support for ourselves and each other. Curly there at the top is my patron saint of remembering what’s important. One thing. We all need to get centered on what is one thing we can all do, individually, for ourselves, that is going to make us feel good.

And feeling good can take many forms, but to me, it always centers around feeling some sense of control and accomplishment. Trust me, there are days when getting out of bed and being able to move all the joints qualifies as a red letter day in my book. Sometimes, it is just sucking it up and saying to myself: “Woman, it IS time to clean those bathrooms now.” And I do it and even if the DH and the Boy come in from outside 20 minutes later (and the floors are still damp) and muck them up, I still feel I have pulled Chez Siberia a teensy bit back from the edge of chaos and insanity. Sometimes, it is fixing my hair and putting on some makeup .. on Sunday when I don’t have to. Sometimes, it is asking someone else in the household if they will make dinner – so that I can put my feet up for a while and read a book. Sometimes it is offering to do something for someone else so that they can put their feet up for a while .. and watch a totally worthless movie where many things get blown up with a great deal of noise and mess.

What it is not is making some huge list of all of my failings and faults and “wannas” (as in, I wanna lose 20 pounds and I wanna do this or that). I have no problems with people who make lists (and there is even a site where you can make a huge list of 1000 things to do in three years or some such thing). My only problem is that a huge list makes me feel totally defeated almost immediately.

Picking one thing and doing that is manageable.

What is the one thing that is driving you crazy right now that you want to do something about (and Rahm Emanuel, Joe Lieberman, et al. do not count)? This has to be personal. This can’t be something like, “I don’t want Tim Geithner at Treasury any more.” Something you can get your arms around. If it’s an ongoing issue, how does that happen? Is it that it is inconvenient to deal with? Or is there some emotional connection that makes you avoid it? Is it something that if you had a friend, a buddy, it would be easier to keep track of and on top of?

If it’s something that is truly what you can do alone – like cleaning the toilets, or painting the bathroom or sending out resumes or getting in some weight lifting or exercise, then setting the alarm clock a little earlier in the morning might be what you need. If you are the sort of person who sleeps through the alarm, then you may need to enlist a family member to knock on your door until you actually get up and answer it, or a neighbor to call you and make sure you answer the phone. If it’s something that you could use a buddy/coach with, then it’s time to do a little ‘reach out and touch someone’ – make arrangements with a friend or coworker or someone from church to meet once a week for coffee and both of you go over your progress for the week, talk about what you want to do this week, write it down in your notebooks and arrange the next meeting. The DH did the NANOWRIMO (National Novel Written in a Month contest) in November this year and part of the effort at the local level was that a local coordinator/coach arranged for everyone to meet at a local library once a week to write, snack, go over questions and problems and so on. Those meetings helped people to keep on track, vent a bit, get ideas and finish (which is the goal – 50,000 words in a month).

But  keep it simple. One thing. One thing that when you do it provides you with satisfaction and a feeling of ‘dayam, I’m good.’

Just one thing.